Former head of military intelligence admits for the first time: We had a part in the assassination of Soleimani

December 20, 2021   

Two years later: Former head of the Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Roy Heyman, admitted for the first time openly that Israel was involved in the assassination of the commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020. Heyman made the remarks to the intelligence and security magazine from the Center for Intelligence Heritage - "A Look at the Intelligence Directorate." So far, reports linking Israel have only been attributed to publications in the foreign press and to foreign elements. Soleimani was killed in an airstrike carried out by the US Air Force on Baghdad International Airport. Heyman said that the assassination was carried out by the Americans, but Israeli intelligence played a part in the operation: "The assassination of Soleimani is an achievement, since our main enemy, in my opinion, is the Iranians. Two significant and important assassinations can be noted during my term. The first, as I already mentioned, is that of Qassem Soleimani - it is rare to find someone so senior, who is both the architect of the fighting force, both the strategist and the operator, it is rare. "The second assassination was of Baha Abu al-Ata in November 2019, who was a senior commander in the Islamic Jihad forces in the Gaza Strip, through high-quality intelligence. "In contrast to the size ratio, he also had a grasp of strategy alongside impressive capabilities for conducting an 'operation on the ground.' The measurement is based on the potential for damage, and Soleimani was a figure with great potential for damage to regional stability and was the locomotive of the Iranian consolidation train." Regarding the Iranian entrenchment in the region, he said: "We have carried out many thwarts and disruptions of money and weapons transfer routes, and the highlight of these efforts is preventing the Iranians from trying to take root in Syria, and we succeeded in that." To the question of how a nuclear bomb from Iran could be prevented, he replied: "There is the possibility of a kinetic attack, and at the same time, a secret channel can be established, through which they will try to reach an agreement, but there are large gaps between the two sides. The West and the US cannot return to the outline of the previous agreement, because the reality has changed, and there are a series of violations on the part of the Iranians.".